Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

Podcast 550: A Conversation with Mehmet Ali Sanlikol

Straight No Chaser is the place for jazz lovers (and those who will soon be jazz lovers) to enjoy podcasts with their favorite music and artists. Winner of the 2017 JazzTimes Readers' Poll for Best Podcast, your host Jeffrey Siegel will take you inside the world of jazz, from the new releases to the best festiva;s to remembrances of jazz legends.

One of the great delights in modern jazz comes when a talented
composer or arranger takes on material which we have come to expect
to sound a certain way, or be presented in a certain manner, and
turns it upside down, or at least off-kilter. Whether it’s a singer
reimagining the way a tune from the Great American Songbook is
interpreted (Cassandra Wilson, Kurt Elling); a soloist wringing
emotion from a tired chestnut (almost anything Fred Hersch, Brad
Mehldau or Keith Jarrett cover) or bringing in sounds from other
genres or cultures to make us rethink the very sound of jazz itself
(Kamasi Washington, Donnie McCaslin, Robert Glasper), we are
listening to new music at a very exciting time.

Mehmet Ali Sanlikol fits firmly into this category. As a
composer, he brings contemporary classical, straight ahead jazz and
the music of his Turkish heritage into a wondrous sonic collision.
With his band Whatsnext?, he is allowing us to think twice before
putting music into one category or another.

Resolution is his new CD, and from the very
start, you can tell there is something exciting happening here.
“Turkish Second Line” takes the sound of classic New Orleans street
music (driven forward by guest soloist Anat Cohen) and merges it
with the kind of Turkish dance music that Sanlikol has heard at
parties since he was a child in Istanbul. Whether he is pairing
scat singing with traditional Turkish singing or adding
micro-tonality to big-band charts, Mehmet is making this music
uniquely his own. Aided by additional guest soloists David Liebman,
Antonio Sanchez and Tiger Okoshi, Whatsnext? rises to the occasion
time and time again playing this strong material.

Podcast 550 is my conversation with Mehmet Ali Sanlikol,
as we discuss his musical background, and how he seeks to merge the
music of his Turkish roots with Jazz. Musical selections from
Resolution include the title track, “Turkish
Second Line” and “Whirlaround.”

\Sanlikol and Whatsnext? will present the new CD at concerts
at Joe’s Pub in New York on October 6th, and Shalin Liu Performance
Center in Rockport, MA on October 9th.

About the Podcast

A blog with interviews, reviews, features and podcasts on jazz of the past, present and future. Four time winner of the JazzTimes Readers' Poll for Best Podcast.